Kidney Beans. Cook the kidney beans in pure water or in good broth; when they are cooked, get finely sliced onions and fry them in a pan with good oil and put these fried onions on top [of the beans] along with pepper, cinnamon and saffron; then let this sit a while on the hot coals; dish it up with good spices on top.

Can you image being a 15th century cook, given the responsibility of cooking this exotic ingredient called “Kidney Beans”? Modern cooks who take cooked then canned kidney beans for granted may not realize the prep required to use dried kidney beans.

Pudding of Carrot.Pare off ſome of the Cruſt of Manchet-Bread, and grate of half as much of the reſt as there is of the Root, which muſt alſo be grated: Then take half a Pint of freſh Cream or New Milk, half a Pound of freſh Butter, ſix new laid Eggs (taking out three of the Whites) maſh and mingle them well with the Cream and Butter: Then put in the grated Bread and Carrot, with near half a Pound of Sugar; and a little Salt; ſome grated Nutmeg and beaten Spice; and pour all into a convenient Diſh or Pan, butter’d, to keep the Ingredients from ſticking and burning; ſet it in a quick Oven for about an Hour, and ſo have you a Compoſition for any Root-Pudding. Acetaria: A Discourse of Sallets, (1699) by John Evelyn

Ingredients

4 cups of carrots, grated, firmly pressed into measuring cup

2 cups bread crumbs

1 cup sugar

1 cup cream

1 cup butter

3 eggs

3 egg yolks

salt to taste

1 tsp nutmeg. ground

1 tsp cinnamon, ground

1/2 tsp cloves, ground

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix grated carrots, crumbs, and sugar together in large bowl.

Blend milk, butter, eggs, and yolks together in a different bowl.

Pour Milk mixture into carrot mixture and stir to combine.

Add spices (to taste) and mix together again.

Butter cake pan.

Pour dense mixture into cake pan, bake at 350 for 1 hour. Until cake is brown, and won’t jiggle in the middle when you gently shake it.

Tastes amazing, would make excellent cup cakes for ease of serving. Kind of crumbled a bit when I cut it while still hot out of the oven. Firmed when cooled.

How to pickle beetrots. First take a distilling pan an place two bricks in. Then arrange some wooden sticks on top of them and add water to the pan, but not so much that it reaches the sticks. Arrange the beetroots on top of the sticks and place the lid on top of the pan. Put on a good fire so the beetroots will be cooked in the steam, but without bleeding. When they are cooked, cleaned and cold, they should be cut into thin slices, and some horseradish should be cut into small pieces (as when lardons are chopped up). Take an new glazed jar and first place a layer of the aforementioned sliced beetroots in it; then sprinkle some horseradish, caraway, finely crushed pepper and a small amount of salt over this. Add more layers of beetroots and the aforementioned spices. Then good ale vinegar is poured over, or half ale vinegar, half wine vinegar, as much as needed to cover the beetroots. Then place a lid with a clean weight on top on the jar, tie a clean cloth over it and store in a convenient place. The beetroots can be used in a few days; but do not stir them with bare fingers.

Ingredients (test run size)

3 medium or 6 small beets, steamed, quartered

1 tbsp horseradish, shredded

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper, ground

1/2 tsp caraway

1/4 cup white wine

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

Directions

Put a small layer of beets in glass jar. Sprinkle some horseradish and spices on top. Repeat until jar is full.

Marina (From Marina’s Solar) wrote a borcht recipe for the Feast Cook’s Guild’s fund raising calendar that was amazing. She quoted this recipe as an example of other beet soup recipes: “In Byzantium beets, sorrel, onion, garlic, and vinegar, boiled together, cleared the digestion. (Source: Tastes of Byzantium)….” but she didn’t redact this one specifically. “…cleared the digestion” has me curious but I carry on.

I am still test cooking for Feast of the Hare n November. I do not think today’s recipe will make the cut–not because it isn’t wonderful but because between the wine and the honey it becomes very expensive to serve to 80 people.

I think that I can edit the recipe to get the flavours by baking the pears instead of poaching and using the syrup as a glaze and still say mostly true to the recipe as written.

This is another meatball in sauce recipe that I am trying out as an idea for Feast of the Hare in November.

Again the meat is paired with a ‘lemon’ flavour, but this time it will be barberries not salted lemons. The meatballs are shaped like pears, which is cute.

I also have fresh thyme and parsley and this recipe will be excellent use for them.

This recipe is fussy especially compared to the above linked meatball recipe but it is so much amazing. John, one of my stunt eaters, called the barberries taste explosions.

To make Peares to be boiled in meate. TAke a peece of a legge of Mutton or Veale raw, being mixed with a little Sheepe sewet, and halfe a manchet grated fine, taking foure raw egges yolkes and al. Then take a little Time, & parsely chopped smal, then take a few gooseberies or barberies, or greene grapes being whole. Put all these together, being seasoned with Salte, saffron and cloues, beaten and wrought altogether; then make Rowles or Balles like to a peare, and when you haue so done, take the stalke of the sage, and put it into the ends of your peares or balles, then take the freshe broth of beefe, Mutton or veale, being put into an earthen pot, putting the peares or balles in the same broth wyth Salt, cloues, mace and Saffron, and when you be ready to serue him, put two or three yolkes of egs into the broth. Let them boile no more after that but serue it forth vpon soppes. You may make balles after the same sorte. Thomas Dawson, The Second part of the good Huswives Jewell (1597)

Ingreidents

Meatballs

.6 kg beef, veal or mutton ground

100 g suite or lard

150 g bread crumbs

2 eggs

2 branches of thyme, leaves minced

2 branches of parsley, leaves minced

100 g barberries

1 tsp salt

pinch saffron

1 tsp cloves, ground

Broth

2 liter beef broth

1 tsp salt

8 cloves, whole

1 flake mace

pinch saffron

3 egg yolks, beaten

Directions

Mix ground meat, and the ingredients for meatballs together. It should hold its shape when formed into “pears”. Make meat mixture into pears, 2 oz each.

Put beef broth, 1 tsp salt, whole cloves, meat mace flake, and pinch of saffron into a large sauce pan and bring to boil. Drop “pears” gently into pot and then reduce heat. DO NOT stir for at least 10 minutes. Remove meatballs after 10 minutes and set into warm bowl.

Remove large spices from broth if possible. Add a 1/4 cup of cooking liquid to egg yolks, blend well, then add egg mixture to pot. Simmer on medium for 10 minutes to thicken sauce.

Its harvest time! So I thought I’d use up some of the sage I put up last year. This tart would be excellent with lots of fresh sage, and a branch of sage as a garnish, but I used dried sage from last year.

I also bought apples to make an apple pie with instead of this one, but they are fresh and crisp and amazing and are going to be eaten raw.

If you want to make cheese tarts of soft cheese, take soft cheese, which you will mash well into pieces in a mortar. Into this add eggs, butter and sage and mash them all together in the same mortar with the cheese. Then you shall fill the tarts with it and let them stand thus to bake. And when they are baked so you shall stick little hollows into them with your fingers and butter them well. Het eerste gedrukte Nederlandsche kookboek, Brussel, Thomas vander Noot

Ingredients

250 grams cheese

2 eggs

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp sage, ground

1 tart shell

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.

Grind cheese, eggs, butter, and sage together. Pour mixture into tart shell. Bake for 35 minutes or until crust is brown and filling is firm.